Emotional Intelligence of Frontline Employees and Customer Retention Mediated by Customer Satisfaction Across Telecommunication Organizations in Maldives

Abstract

This review paper emphasized assessing the past literature on the relationship between emotional intelligence and customer retention and satisfaction. Several recent studies from 2019 to 2025 were reviewed to assess the role of emotional intelligence on customer satisfaction and retention. Particularly 23 papers were selected that appeared in Google Scholar which are relevant to telecommunication sector. The review of the past literature indicated that four components of emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness along with relationship management of frontline employees in the service sector play an important role in improving customer retention and satisfaction. Also, the past literature revealed that customer satisfaction plays a mediating role in harnessing the relationship between emotional intelligence and customer retention. This review paper has several practical and theoretical implications which were discussed in the last section of this paper.